Fatty cheeses and cream are associated with a lower risk of dementia

The participants recorded their meals in detail during the week, answered questions about their eating habits from previous years, and discussed cooking methods with the researchers. All this made it possible to accurately assess the consumption of various dairy products, including their fat content.

Special attention was paid to cheeses with a high fat content of more than 20%. This group included varieties such as cheddar, brie, and gouda. The comparison was conducted between people who ate at least 50 grams of such cheese per day and those who limited themselves to less than 15 grams. In the first group, 10% of the participants developed dementia by the end of the follow—up, in the second group – in 13%.

After taking into account age, gender, level of education, and overall nutritional quality, it turned out that a higher intake of fatty cheese was associated with a 13% lower risk of dementia. When analyzing individual forms of the disease, the relationship turned out to be even more pronounced: the risk of vascular dementia was 29% lower. For Alzheimer’s disease, the effect was observed only in people without the APOE e4 gene variant, which is considered a significant genetic risk factor.

A similar trend was found for heavy cream with a fat content of about 30-40%. People who consumed at least 20 grams of such cream per day had a 16% lower risk of dementia compared to those who did not eat them at all.

The findings cast doubt on the simplistic view of fats in the diet. Some high-fat dairy products, which have long been considered undesirable, may be associated with a more favorable cognitive prognosis. At the same time, the paper emphasizes the need for further research in order to understand the possible mechanisms and confirm the observed effect.

The study was supported by the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation and a number of scientific foundations. The findings add to a growing number of studies showing that the effect of nutrition and the substances obtained on brain health is more complex than dividing foods into useful and harmful ones based on a single attribute, such as fat content.